Chevy to build next Colorado pickup in US
07.02.12
Chevy to body next Colorado pickup in U.S. GM also promises Camaro convertible with more huskiness Christina Rogers/ The Detroit News
Chevrolet confirmed Monday that it will establish its next-generation Colorado pickup in the United States after unveiling the all-new adaptation last week in Thailand.
The iconic American brand also said it will found its most powerful Camaro convertible as it tries to up the ante in its pony car struggle with the Ford Mustang.
The news comes as Chevy's Nov. 3 centennial bicentenary approaches. To celebrate, General Motors Co. has invited reporters from around the world to Detroit this week to preview its Chevy lineup.
The all-new Colorado will be Chevy's first worldwide sold pickup.
While compact pickups like the Colorado are in fashion overseas, they have yet to gain a strong following in the United States, where buyers take care of to favor full-size trucks.
Last year, automakers sold 249,136 brief pickups, which accounted for 4.3 percent of total U.S. hit on vehicle sales, according to AutoData Corp. By weighing, full-size pickups, like the Chevrolet Silverado, made up 23.1 percent of the U.S. trade in.
Pricing and other details have not yet been announced; neither has GM revealed when and where the new midsize rubbish will be built. Its Shreveport, La., plant makes the current-contemporaries Colorado that will be built through the 2012 model year. The Shreveport plant is slated to close July 2012.
Production of the next-generation Colorado is expected to go to Wentzville, Mo., where GM has pledged to add a budge and invest $380 million to build a midsize ends.
Ready in Thailand
The all-new Colorado will begin rolling off the straight this month in Thailand — the world's largest superstore for midsize trucks — and later go on sale in other markets across the globule with minor tweaks for each region.
The Thailand-built Colorado will subsume two- and four-wheel drive models, as well as regular, extended-cab and crew cab variants. Gasoline and diesel engines also will be on tap.
Ford Motor Co. also has a new global midsize pickup, the Ranger. But Ford obvious to offer the Ranger in all regions except the U.S. and Canada. The Dearborn automaker, which also makes the F-150 full-expanse pickup, said poor sales of the smaller Ranger showed hardly demand for a truck that size when there was little incremental expenditure to move up to the F-Series.
Power play
The last Ranger for U.S. customers will go around off the line in December when Ford plans to close the Duplicate Cities Assembly plant in St. Paul, Minn., that makes the pickup for this call.
Source: The Detroit News
For instance, General Motors has an inventory of 122 days (or 4 months) of its Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra according to a dispatch from Reuters, or 50% higher than the typical industry inventory of 80 days. But GM isn't the only automaker in suffering.